All you need to know about the IPL Auction 2017

The IPL auction for the tenth edition of the biggest T20 extravaganza around the world took place in Bangalore on the 20th of February, 2017 with the eight franchisees using their bucks to fine tune their respective squads before the forthcoming season of the IPL which is scheduled to be played between the 5th of April and 21st of May. A total of 66 players attracted bids out of the 351 that were up for grabs before the start of the auction.

Benjamin Stokes, as was expected pre-auction, attracted the highest bid amongst all as the Rising Pune Supergiants went all in to rope in the English all-rounder. He was bought for a whopping Rs. 14.5 crore ($2.16m) which is a record for any overseas acquisition and next only to Yuvraj Singh who was bought for Rs. 16 crore by the Delhi Daredevils for the 2015 season. Terming him as the ‘hero we need’, Pune owner Sanjeev  Goenka justified spending that big an amount to prize out Stokes. Stokes’ compatriot Tymal Mills also set a record for the highest bid for any pacer in the IPL when he was bought for Rs. 12 crore ($1.79m) by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The fact that premier fast bowler Mitchell Starc backed out of this season of the IPL made Bangalore desperate to acquire Mills.

It seemed as though pacers were the sought after commodity in this auction. Apart from Stokes and Mills, Trent Boult (Rs. 5 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders), Kagiso Rabada (Rs. 5 crore to Delhi Daredevils) Pat Cummins (Rs. 4.5 crore to Delhi Daredevils), Chris Woakes (Rs. 4.2 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders) and Nathan Coulter Nile (Rs. 3.5 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders) hugely benefitted from this increased demand for pacers. One reason behind the franchisees preferring to stock their squads with pacers could be the trend of pitches on offer in India in the last cricket season where it has been quite evident that none of the pitches have been very spin friendly unlike older Indian pitches and that fast bowlers have played a decisive role in the outcome of matches. However, Indian pacers Ishant Sharma (base price Rs. 2 crore) and Irfan Pathan (Rs. 50 lakhs) could not find buyers.

Every year the auction brings along surprises and names which are previously unheard of and that make headlines when they turn into millionaires overnight. Such was the case of Thangarasu Natarajan (base price Rs. 10 lakhs) who was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs. 3 crore. His claim to fame was a successful season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League and being considered as a death overs specialist, he will surely be closely looked at. Mohammed Siraj, a pacer from Hyderabad was another such name as he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 2.6 crore. Karn Sharma who was bought by the Mumbai Indians for Rs. 3.2 crore got the highest bid for an Indian player. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan made history as they were the first set of Afghan cricketers to be bought at the IPL auction, being bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 30 lakhs and Rs 4 crore respectively.

Following is the summary of all sold players and the amount they were purchased for by the respective franchisees.

Delhi Daredevils

Angelo Mathews (Rs. 2 crore)

Corey Anderson (Rs. 1 crore)

Kagiso Rabada (Rs. 5 crore)

Pat Cummins (Rs. 4.5 crore)

Ankit Bawne (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Aditya Tare (Rs. 25 lakhs)

Murugan Ashwin (Rs. 1 crore)

Navdeep Saini (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Shashank Singh (Rs. 10 lakhs)

 

Guarat Lions

Nathu Singh (Rs. 50 lakhs)

Basil Thampy (Rs. 85 lakhs)

Tejas Baroka (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Manpreet Gony (Rs. 60 lakhs)

Jason Roy (Rs. 1 crore)

Munaf Patel (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Chirag Suri (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Shelley Shaurya (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Shubham Agrawal (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Pratham Singh (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Akshdeep Nath (Rs. 10 lakhs)

 

Kings XI Punjab

Eoin Morgan (Rs. 2 crore)

Rahul Tewatia (Rs. 25 lakhs)

T Natarjan (Rs. 3 crore)

Matt Henry (Rs. 50 lakhs)

Varun Aaron (Rs. 2.8 crore)

Martin Guptill (Rs. 50 laks)

Darren Sammy (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Rinku Singh (Rs. 10 lakhs)

 

Kolkata Knight Riders

Trent Boult (Rs. 5 crore)

Chris Woakes (Rs. 4.2 crore)

Rishi Dhawan (Rs. 55 lakhs)

Nathan Coulter Nile (Rs. 3.5 crore)

Rovman Powell (Rs. 30 lakhs)

R Sanjay Yadav (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Ishank Jaggi (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Darren Bravo (Rs. 50 lakhs)

Sayan Ghosh (Rs. 10 lakhs)

 

Mumbai Indians

Nicholas Pooran (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Mitchell Johnson (Rs. 2 crore)

Karn Sharma (Rs. 3.2 crore)

K Gowtham (Rs. 2 crore)

Saurah Tiwary (Rs. 30 lakhs)

A Gunarathna (Rs. 30 lakhs)

K Khejroliya (Rs. 10 lakhs)

 

Rising Pune Supergiants

Ben Stokes (Rs. 14.5 crore)

Jaydev Unadkat (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Rahul Chahar (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Saurabh Kumar (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Dan Christian (Rs. 1 crore)

Milind Tandon (Rs. 10 lakhs)

R Tripathi (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Manoj Tiwary (Rs. 50 lakhs)

Lockie Ferguson (Rs. 50 lakhs)

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Pawan Negi (Rs. 1 crore)

Tymal Mills (Rs. 12 crore)

Aniket Chowdhary (Rs. 2 crore)

Praveen dubey (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Billy Stanlake (Rs. 30 lakhs)

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Tanmay Agarwal (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Mohammad Nabi (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Rashid Khan (Rs. 4 crore)

Ekalavya Dwivedi (Rs. 75 lakhs)

Pravin Tambe (Rs. 10 lakhs)

Chris Jordan (Rs. 50 lakhs)

Ben Laughlin (Rs. 30 lakhs)

Mohammed Siraj (Rs. 2.6 crore)